Improvement in carpet mattings or linings



UNITED STATES PATENT O FIcE.

PETER SWEENY, OF NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM B. BISHOP, OF SAME PLACE 5 SAID BISHOP ASSIGNOR TO SELAH O. OARLL, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARPET MATTJNGS OR LININGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 132,333, dated October 15, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER SWEENY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Matting to be placed under Carpets, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to a matting to be placed under carpets, formed of sponge disintegrated or divided into small pieces, and combined with cotton, wool, or some analogous fibrous material spread in a layer upon or between sheets of paper or some equivalent material.

To fabricate my combined sponge-matting I take common sponge-that of an inferior quality will serve the purpose-and tear it into small shreds or cut it into small pieces, say of the size of a chestnut or bean. With this disintegrated sponge I mix a quantity of cotton, wool, tow, or other equivalent fibrous material, mingling the two together so-that the fibers of the cotton will be interlocked in some degree with the fibers of the sponge. This may be done readily by running the two together through a common picking-machine. The proportion of cotton which it is well to use is about one part by weight to one of the sponge. The cotton in this combination serves the purpose of holding the sponge in place without interfering with or impairing its elasticity, and the sponge that of preventing the matting down of the cotton; the said combination thus producing a different and better article of carpet-lining than either the cotton or sponge produces alone, each acting upon and modifying the other.

I would recommend that the sponge be prepared for the purpose by being first thoroughly washed and all foreign matter removed from it, and then soaked in water containing a small quantity of glycerine, allowing the water to evaporate before using. The combined sponge and cotton I then spread out in a thin layer upon paper, or, what is preferable, between two sheets of paper. It may be made to ad'- here to the paper by gumming the surface of the papers, or it may be made to keep its place between the sheets by stitching through them. Cloth or any other suitable material may, of course,be used instead of paper. The matting is thus made of continuous sheets of an desired length, and of a width to correspond with the carpet under which it is proposed to place it.

I am aware that sponge has been used for carpet-matting by being cut or sliced into layers. I know, also, that cotton or other analogous materials have been used for a similar purpose; but I am not aware that sponge has ever been combined with any of these fibrous materials in the manner here described.

What I claim, therefore, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Carpet matting, as a new manufacture, formed of sponge combined with cotton or othor equivalent fibrous material, substantially as herein specified.

Witness my hand this 13th day of December, 1871.

v PETER SWEENY.

Witnesses WM. 0. REDDY, A. LIVINGSTON MILLS. 

